SOME 500 blind and visually impaired persons are receiving training to acquire the requisite skills to live independently. This is owing to the Orientation and Mobility programme which was launched on Tuesday by First Lady Mrs. Arya Ali.

According to the government’s Department of Public Information (DPI), an additional 10 persons will gain direct employment through the programme, as they will be certified as Orientation and Mobility officers by the Board of Industrial Training (BIT).

One such person is Ms. Schemona Sugrim, who will be employed to train others in various skills, including the use of assistive technologies to gain employment. “It’s a great initiative, because persons like myself will be benefitting tremendously from it. I can say that in times past, I didn’t really have the opportunity that other persons will have, so I feel really good about it,” Sugrim said.

Another beneficiary of the programme is Ms. Lata Devie Jagmohan, who lauded the authorities for orchestrating an innovative initiative to improve the lives of persons with disabilities.

“I think it’s a benefit for a lot of people, especially those who are visually impaired and blind, to develop independent living skills,” Jagmohan noted.

Disability Rights advocate, Mr. Leroy Phillips told the DPI that he is happy that young persons living with visual disabilities can have a better future, as they can now acquire mobility and orientation skills needed to make them independent. “I feel particularly excited; elated, happy, optimistic about the future of those young persons who are blind and visually impaired across the length and breadth of Guyana,” Phillips said.

He added, “For too many years we’ve heard stories, and had to deal with blind and visually impaired persons staying at home; [being] kept at home with no other option but to remain at home because they did not get the chance; the opportunity to acquire mobility and orientation skills.”

Programme Coordinator of the Guyana Council of Organisation for Persons with Disabilities (GCOPD), Mr. Ganesh Singh said the programme will train persons from seven regions across the country.

“We will do this in an informal way, using volunteers, mostly persons who are blind and visually impaired… Through this programme, we aim, in the next year, to train and provide orientation and mobility services to approximately 500 persons who are blind and visually impaired, across Regions Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam), Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara), Four (Demerara-Mahaica), Five (Mahaica-Berbice), Six East Berbice-Corentyne), Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni) and Ten (Upper Demerara-Berbice),” Singh said.

The skills developed via the programme will pave the way for more visually impaired Guyanese to seek employment and be gainfully employed.